


Distraction Tactics

by CirrusGrey



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Episode Related, M/M, Short, Talking, episode 182 spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:47:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26913880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CirrusGrey/pseuds/CirrusGrey
Summary: SPOILERS FOR MAG 182!!!Jon is getting morbid. Martin cheers him up.
Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist
Comments: 14
Kudos: 151





	Distraction Tactics

Jon was quiet as they made their way through the corridors of the hospital, ducking around corners to avoid the gaze of the doctor who was still looking for them to continue the tour.

He was quiet as they slipped through the double doors of the exit, leaving the shrieking alarms and flickering emergency lights behind.

He was quiet, still quiet, as they crossed the empty car park and left the whole suffering edifice behind them.

Martin was beginning to think he was getting a bit in his head about the whole thing.

Which, well... it was a reasonable reaction. That place had been...  _ intense. _ Add to that Breekon's final request, and the sorrow in his voice when talking about his lost partner...

It had been a lot.

There was a tight furrow of concentration between Jon's brows, the one that Martin had identified as his 'thinking face' within the first two weeks after they met. It was accompanied by a sorrowful downturn of his lips, and an overall posture that suggested pensive misery.

He looked, in short, like he needed cheering up.

Martin wasn't feeling particularly cheerful himself, but he could pretend for Jon's sake.

"So..." he said, drawing the word out as he cast around for a topic, before settling on: "Dr. Jane Doe, then."

"Hm?" Jon glanced over at him.

"She was one of those anatomy students, yeah? For Doctor... oh, what was his name..." He snapped his fingers, a deliberately bright and confident sound.

"Dr. Elliott," Jon supplied for him, with a sudden, surprised smile. "Yes, you're right."

"Talk about a blast from the past," Martin said, shaking his head in a way he hoped looked like fond nostalgia. "Whatever happened to him?"

Jon raised an eyebrow. "Do you  _ really  _ want to know?"

"Oh..." Martin paused. Forced cheer could only go so far in the apocalypse. "No, no, you're right. Probably not."

But it brought forth a chuckle from Jon, so Martin counted it as a success. A distraction was still a distraction, even if it was a grim one.

"You know," he said, after a moment. "Breekon actually recognized me."

"Wait- really?" Jon glanced at him in surprise. "I didn't think you two had ever met."

"Yeah, we did, remember? I took the delivery for your, uh, your lighter, there."

"Oh." Jon blinked, huffing out a breath. "Christ, I'd forgotten. That was a long time ago." The huff morphed into a small, rueful laugh.

Martin joined in. "Yeah, that's what  _ he  _ said. I just thought it was funny that an Avatar of the  _ Stranger  _ remembered my face."

Another laugh. "It does seem rather counterintuitive."

Martin grinned, a wave of fondness washing over him as he thought back to that time, their first year in the Archives. "You know," he said after a minute, "they were actually pretty close to each other, now I think about it. The delivery was only about a week or so after Dr. Elliot came in. Think that has anything to do with how they ended up here?"

"Oh, maybe." Jon shrugged. Martin wasn't sure if he'd really heard the question or not. "You know, I ran into another of his students once too?" he continued. "Max Musterman."

"Yeah, you said, that's the, uh-" He winced as he remembered the circumstances of that meeting. "The one, uh, Trevor Herbert killed?"

"Oh." Jon looked a tad embarrassed as he, too, recalled. "Ah. Yes."

"Well..." Martin took a deep breath. This was supposed to be cheering Jon up, for god's sake, dwelling on the deaths they'd seen recently was not going to help. "At least one of them is putting their lessons to good use."

Jon laughed, sudden and shocked. "Something tells me this is  _ not  _ what Dr. Elliot had in mind when he set out to become a teacher."

Martin chuckled, holding onto that laugh and the smile it had brought to Jon's face. It was a morbid cheer, perhaps, but at least he was smiling again. "No, you may be right."

The smile didn't drop from Jon's face as the conversation trailed off, but it drifted softer, and a thoughtful look crept back into his eyes. After a minute, he shifted his arm, elbowing Martin gently in the side.

"I see what you did there," he said, voice warm.

Martin affected an innocent expression. "Sorry?"

"Getting me talking. Shaking me from my thoughts."

"Well..." Martin shrugged, trying to play it off. "I just thought you might appreciate a change of pace.”

"Martin," Jon said, and Martin stopped talking to look at him. Jon nudged him again. "Thank you," he said softly.

Martin smiled, nudging him back. "Any time, Jon. Any time."


End file.
